1. { CAMERA ANATOMY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-kWYvuLmqM

2.  When you strip it down to it’s most basic construction, a digital camera is no different than a film camera from 150 years ago.  All camera designs begin with a lightproof box.  (the area the lens focuses on.)  On one side of this box sits the lens for focusing light and on the other side sits the focal plane (the area the lens focuses on.) A VERY FANCY BOX

3.  The focal plane holds a light sensitive recording medium of some kind.  In an 18-century camera obscura, this might have been a big piece of paper – the photographer would trace over the projected image to create a drawing or painting.  In a digital camera,, the focal plane houses, a digital image sensor. FANCY BOX CON’T.

4.  An image sensor is a special light sensitive silicon chip.  2 Major Chips on the market, Charged Couple Device (CCD) and Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) WHAT DOES AN IMAGE SENSOR DO?

5.  1)When taking a picture, the light falling on the image sensor is sampled and converted into electrical signals.  2)After the image sensor is exposed, these signals are boosted by an amplifier and sent to an analog-to-digital converter that turns the signals into digits.  3)Finally, the digits are sent to an on board computer for processing, which is saved to the memory card. WHAT DOES AN IMAGE SENSOR DO, CON’T?

6.  A great advantage that digital cameras have over film cameras is the smaller size of the image sensor. (They don’t need to hold film inside of them)  As light falls on the image sensor, the camera turns it into an image and passes that image onto the LCD screen (Viewfinder.) POINT-AND-SHOOT DESIGN

7.  A Point-and-Shoot with an optical viewfinder, uses an entirely separate lens for the viewfinder.  The main camera lens is used to expose the sensor, while the optical viewfinder looks through a different lens.  Optical View finder shows you 80 -85% of final image, while LCD screen shows you 98 – 100% of final image. POINT-AND-SHOOT DESIGN

8.  SLR only has one lens, as apposed to the Point and Shoot, which houses the sensor, and one for the optical viewfinder.  When looking through a viewfinder of an SLR, your looking through same lens that exposes the image sensor.  If you look at the profile of your SLR, you’ll see that the lens is actually sitting much lower than the viewfinder. SLR DESIGN

9.  If you were to saw your camera in half, you would find the image sensor and shutter, sitting directly behind the lens.  In front of the shutter, you would find a mirror set at a 45 degree angle. The mirror bounces the light from the lens up toward the top of the camera.  The light enters the prism and is redirected out through the viewfinder. SLR CON’T

10. SLR ANATOMY